Enzootic enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection in laboratory rabbits.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is the most important cause of persistent diarrhea in children, particularly in developing countries. Animals serve as pathogenic E. coli reservoirs, and compelling evidence for cross-species EPEC transmission exists. In this report, enzootic EPEC infection associated with up to 10.5% diarrhea-associated morbidity in a large laboratory Dutch Belted rabbit colony was investigated. These rabbits were obtained from a commercial vendor and had acute diarrhea following shipment. Fecal culture of 20 rabbits yielded 48 E. coli isolates, 83% of which were eae positive. Repetitive sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR) and serologic analysis identified a single disease-associated EPEC O145:H2 strain. In sampled rabbits, EPEC-positive culture and the presence of diarrhea were significantly associated. This strain displayed a localized adherence-like HEp-2 cell adherence pattern, as seen in diarrheic human infant EPEC isolates. Treatment was instituted with the fluoroquinolone antibiotic enrofloxacin, to which all isolates were susceptible. Preshipment parenteral enrofloxacin administration reduced diarrhea-associated morbidity 22-fold and mortality 12-fold in subsequent deliveries. This report emphasizes the zoonotic potential of animal EPEC strains and the need for virulence determinant-based screening of E. coli isolates from diarrheic animals.

SPECTRa-T: machine-based data extraction and semantic searching of chemistry e-theses.

The SPECTRa-T project has developed text-mining tools to extract named chemical entities (NCEs), such as chemical names and terms, and chemical objects (COs), e.g., experimental spectral assignments and physical chemistry properties, from electronic theses (e-theses). Although NCEs were readily identified within the two major document formats studied, only the use of structured documents enabled identification of chemical objects and their association with the relevant chemical entity (e.g., systematic chemical name). A corpus of theses was analyzed and it is shown that a high degree of semantic information can be extracted from structured documents. This integrated information has been deposited in a persistent Resource Description Framework (RDF) triple-store that allows users to conduct semantic searches. The strength and weaknesses of several document formats are reviewed.

First author research productivity of United States radiation oncology residents: 2002-2007.

PURPOSE: Participation in investigative research is a required element of radiation oncology residency in the United States. Our purpose was to quantify the first author research productivity of recent U.S. radiation oncology residents during their residency training. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We performed a computer-based search of PubMed and a manual review of the proceedings of the annual meetings of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology to identify all publications and presented abstracts with a radiation oncology resident as the first author between 2002 and 2007. RESULTS: Of 1,098 residents trained at 81 programs, 50% published > or =1 article (range, 0-9), and 53% presented > or =1 abstract (range, 0-3) at an American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meeting. The national average was 1.01 articles published and 1.09 abstracts presented per resident during 4 years of training. Of 678 articles published, 82% represented original research and 18% were review articles. Residents contributed 15% of all abstracts at American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meetings, and the resident contribution to orally presented abstracts increased from 12% to 21% during the study period. Individuals training at programs with >6 residents produced roughly twice as many articles and abstracts. Holman Research Pathway residents produced double the national average of articles and abstracts. CONCLUSION: Although variability exists among individuals and among training programs, U.S. radiation oncology residents routinely participate in investigative research suitable for publication or presentation at a scientific meeting. These data provide national research benchmarks that can assist current and future radiation oncology residents and training programs in their self-assessment and research planning.

Timing of biochemical failure and distant metastatic disease for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk prostate cancer after radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: The relation of prostate cancer risk-group stratification and the timing of biochemical failure (BF) and distant metastasis (DM) is not well defined. The authors hypothesized that early failures due to subclinical micrometastasis at presentation could be differentiated from late failures due to local persistence. METHODS: A total of 1833 men with clinically localized prostate cancer treated with 3D-conformal radiotherapy with or without short-term androgen deprivation were retrospectively analyzed. By using American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) and Phoenix (Nadir+2) definitions (developed at the ASTRO-RTOG [Radiation Therapy Oncology Group] consensus meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, January 21, 2005), the interval hazard rates of BF and DM were determined for men with low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk disease. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 67 months. Multivariate analysis showed that increasing risk group was independently associated with higher ASTRO BF (P < .0001) and Nadir+2 BF (P < .0001). The preponderance (87%) of ASTRO BF occurred 4 years. The hazard of Nadir+2 BF persisted in Years 8-12 in all risk groups. The interval hazard function for DM appeared to be biphasic (early peak followed by a drop and late increase) for intermediate-risk and high-risk patients, but no distinct early wave was evident for low-risk patients. CONCLUSIONS: Because of backdating, ASTRO BF underestimates late BF. Local persistence of disease is suggested by delayed Nadir+2 BF and subsequent late DM in every risk group. The paucity of early DM among those with low-risk tumors supports the hypothesis that occult micrometastases contributed to the early wave.

Radiation dose and late failures in prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: To quantify the impact of radiation dose escalation on the timing of biochemical failure (BF) and distant metastasis (DM) for prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone. METHODS: The data from 667 men with clinically localized intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer treated with three-dimensional conformal RT alone were retrospectively analyzed. The interval hazard rates of DM and BF, using the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) and Phoenix (nadir + 2) definitions, were determined. The median follow-up was 77 months. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis showed that increasing radiation dose was independently associated with decreased ASTRO BF (p < 0.0001), nadir + 2 BF (p = 0.001), and DM (p = 0.006). The preponderance (85%) of ASTRO BF occurred at < or =4 years after RT, and nadir + 2 BF was more evenly spread throughout Years 1-10, with 55% of BF in < or =4 years. Radiation dose escalation caused a shift in the BF from earlier to later years. The interval hazard function for DM appeared to be biphasic (early and late peaks) overall and for the <74-Gy group. In patients receiving > or =74 Gy, a reduction occurred in the risk of DM in the early and late waves, although the late wave appeared reduced to a greater degree. CONCLUSION: The ASTRO definition of BF systematically underestimated late BF because of backdating. Radiation dose escalation diminished and delayed BF; the delay suggested that local persistence may still be present in some patients. For DM, a greater radiation dose reduced the early and late waves, suggesting that persistence of local disease contributed to both.

The Study Support Associate: an alternative to the traditional animal care position.

The authors describe the development of a position in animal care that combines husbandry, veterinary care, breeding colony management, and in vivo research support. The integration of these tasks gives participating animal care staff more diverse responsibilities and leads to more effective communication and collaboration between researchers and husbandry personnel.

Low utility of dobutamine stress echocardiograms in the preoperative evaluation of patients scheduled for noncardiac surgery.

UNLABELLED: In this study, we examined the utility of preoperative dobutamine stress echocardiograms (DSE) obtained for 85 patients in accordance with guidelines published by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). The medical record of each patient was reviewed to identify the clinical criteria that indicated the need for a DSE, the DSE results, therapeutic interventions rendered as a result of the DSE, and any perioperative cardiac morbidity. The DSE was positive for inducible ischemia in 4 patients (4.7%), negative in 74 (87.1%), and nondiagnostic in 7 (8.2%). DSEs that were obtained for 48 patients because of a history of diabetes mellitus, mild angina, or "minor clinical predictors" produced only negative results. Of the four patients with positive DSE results, three underwent coronary angiography, and one of those three underwent bypass grafting before surgery. An additional 29 patients received a preoperative DSE but were excluded from the study because the criteria for ordering the DSE did not meet the ACC/AHA guidelines. No patient had any perioperative morbidity related to myocardial ischemia. The total patient charge for the 85 DSEs obtained at our institution was US$104,635. Use of the ACC/AHA guidelines for preoperative DSEs does not appear to be cost-effective. However, the current algorithm could be significantly improved by altering the criteria for obtaining preoperative DSEs. IMPLICATIONS: This study was a retrospective review of 85 patient charts that found a low cost-effectiveness of using American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for obtaining preoperative dobutamine stress echocardiograms. Suggested modifications of these guidelines should improve their specificity with no loss in sensitivity.